| Posted: April 26 2010,20:32 |
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Postal address of organization/institution
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E-mail address of organization/institution
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optu-ny@earthlink.net
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Website address of organization/institution
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www.csvgc-ny.org
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Telephone of organization/institution
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609-744-9439
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PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity |
EDUCATION FOR PEACE
UNDERSTANDING, TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY
INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY
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TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity |
EDUCATION FOR PEACE
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PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What
partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus
strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace? |
We
are comprised of individuals from many United Nations NGO's, associated
with both the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and
the Department of Public Information (DPI). Among them are:
Operation Peace Through Unity, International Public Policy Institute,
International Relief Friendship Foundation, The Ribbons International,
Children of the Earth, Elizabeth Seton Foundation, Soka Gokkai
International, Legion of Goodwill, Wittenberg Center, United Religions
Initiative, Tribal Link, National Services Conference of the American
Ethical Union, Aquarian Age Community, World Peace Prayer Society,
Universal Peace Federation. Beyond that we are connected with
the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace
(www.mfp-dop.org) and the U.S. Department of Peace
(www.thepeacealliance.org) campaign (our co-chair is UN Liaison to
these organizations). In addition, we have many consulting
collaborative “friends” who are not official NGO members of CSVGC-NY
but who support us -- such as the U.S. Peace Academy, the Global
Education Association and Humanity’s Team and various distinguished UN
officials.
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ACTIONS: What activities have
been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a
report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010
report.
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Our
group started to slowly form during the mid-point of the decade around
2005, concurrent with the formation of its overall organization, the
CSVGC-NY. Interestingly, one of our first tasks was to assist
with the Mid-Decade Culture of Peace report but we were so new then
that it did not occur to us to submit an entry ourselves. Below
is how we are currently described on the CSVGC-NY website
(www.csvgc-ny.org). This was revised two years ago and will be
updated again -- as our mission and actions have developed considerably
in an ever-expanding way since then. We have come to a deeper
understanding and appreciation of the UN Declaration and Program of
Action on a Culture of Peace (A/RES/53/243) during this time as our UN
work has progressed. Perhaps a more precise description of our
mission now is to simply promote this important UN document which is
still under-utilized at the UN.
Mission:
To assist the United Nations in fulfilling it's mandate to "eliminate
the scourge of war" by working in various ways to cultivate a culture
of peace and pursue alternatives to violence at all levels of our
existence (inner, inter-personal, national, international). We support
structures that will enable nonviolence to become an organizing
principle in society, where peace is regarded as a basic human right.
Culture of Peace Working Group members with special guests Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, David
Adams and Marcos Estrada at our January, 2010 meeting kicking off the last year of the Decade
and promoting the 10 Year World Report survey at the UN.
Vision:
Valuing the essential unity of humanity, and convinced that the
Golden Rule, i.e., love your neighbor as yourself; do unto others as
you would have them do unto you, is humanity's highest calling the
world over, we recognize that Love expressed as goodwill is that which
leads to right human relations as set out in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR), and therefore, that this is the primary
prerequisite to peace and creating a Culture of Peace. Initial areas of
focus include:
1) Advance UN Department & Ministry of Peace Resolution Project
2) Participate in Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns
3) Continue to support International Day of Peace efforts
4) Increase UN recognition of new 10/2 International Day of Nonviolence
5) Obtain official UN DPI approval for Culture of Peace Pocket Booklet (make
available in NGO Resource Room)
6) Consider Ways to Participate in the Annual NGO/DPI Conference
1)
Advance UN Department & Ministry of Peace Resolution Project:
Considerable movement has been made in this endeavor, preparing
the soil to plant seeds for it to happen when the time is right.
We spent 2008 refining the draft UN Resolution document, with the
help of UN advisors. In 2009 we promoted the idea and circulated
this draft document in various circles throughout the world, most
notably at the 2009 “Peace Alliance” U.S. Department of Peace biennial
lobbying conference in Washington, DC plus at the biennial Global
Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace Summit in Costa Rica.
We will soon begin next phase by visiting missions to engage in
dialogues about “peace infrastructures.”
2) Participate in Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns:
• In 2007 we presented a workshop during the week of spirituality on the peace of martial arts.
•
In 2008 we had a more formal panel presentation to discuss “Is Peace a
Human Right.” Featured were: Philippines Ambassador, culture of
peace specialist, UNESCO culture specialist & Global Alliance
representative.
• In 2009 we conducted a questionnaire on “Global
Peace Through Reconciliation” which, among other things, asked various
questions related to culture of peace and the concept of peace
infrastructures. Its purpose was not only to assess level of
civil society knowledge of these things but to educate and inform.
We found most respondents supported ministries and departments of
peace and passing a UN Resolution encouraging them.
3)
Continue to support International Day of Peace efforts: The
Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace selects the
date of its biennial international Summits to coincide with the
International Day of Peace. In 2007 it took place in Japan and
2009 in Costa Rica. We orchestrated a moment of silence during
the 2009 Summit program (which was being broadcast globally) at the
designated time when all around the world was to focus on peace.
4)
Increase UN recognition of new 10/2 International Day of
Nonviolence: In 2009 we organized a presentation featuring a
"non-violence" expert through the UN Values Caucus in recognition of
this special new day on the UN calendar.
5)
Obtain official UN DPI approval for Culture of Peace pocket
booklet: We helped facilitate production of these handy little
blue booklets (containing the actual UN culture of peace Resolution)
that were made through the generosity of Soka
Gakkai.International … who graciously makes supplies available to us
for various distributions.
6) Consider ways to
participate in the Annual NGO/DPI Conference: We presented a
Midday Workshop at the 60th annual DPI/NHO Conference in September,
2007 on “A Solution to the Challenge of Climate Change: Global
Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace.” We submitted
a proposal for last year’s Mexico conference (which was not approved
but we believe no effort is ever lost). We plan to try again this
year to promote the culture of peace in this way.
7)
Other: In 2006 we organized a presentation on the Global
Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace through the UN Values
Caucus.
Culture of Peace Working Group meeting at UN Plaza with the draft UN "Peace Infrastructures" Resolution
we had diligently worked on
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PROGRESS: Has your organization
seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain
of action and in your constituency during the second half of the
Decade? |
Yes
indeed -- we have made amazing progress since the mid-decade! We
have gradually evolved from a just a few NGO’s who merely resonated
with the concept of “culture of peace” -- yet did not know much about
it or what to “do” with it -- into to a group of
passionate, dedicated “doers” consciously striving to operate from a
spiritual base. Our list serve has grown from just a few to over
70! We have accomplished a variety of significant actions around
the UN during the second half of the Decade too. The most
dramatic example pertains to our work promoting this very Culture of
Peace World Report effort at the UN!! We were able to get the
Department of Public Information to read notice about it for the last
two months at its weekly Briefings. This allowed us to develop a
connection with DPI that had not existed before. Functioning
within the concurrently evolving CSVGC-NY protocols, we have all come a
long way in this time.
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OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?
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1)
Lack of awareness and appreciation about the UN Declaration and
Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace within the UN system and
beyond.
2) The humungous UN protocols and vast
bureaucracy one must go through in order to accomplish even the
slightest thing.
3) Lack of funding to cover necessary
expenses of our work, which have become quite costly and burdensome as
our profile has enlarged. Bearing costs out-of-pocket is limiting
plus can be a deterrent in recruiting volunteers to help.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to
promote a culture of peace and nonviolence? |
The 2010 goal is to anchor CoP @ the UN in the following ways:
1)
Begin next phase of the draft UN Resolution project which is to
visit missions to establish connection and begin dialogues on peace
infrastructures.
2) Propose a Fall Department of Public Information Briefing about the CoP Decade & World Report
3) Designate 8 CoP “Programme of Action” Focalizers to monitor UN developments in these areas
4) Submit CoP Midday Workshop Proposal for 2010 Department of Public Information Conference
5) Working Group participation in 2010 UN Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns
6) Make contact with UN Peacebuilding Commission
7)
SEEK FUNDING to cover our increasing expense -- apply for grants
(ideas on possible resources and funding sources are most
welcome!!)
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GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??
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Passage
in the UN General Assembly of the draft UN Resolution calling for
building governmental “peace infrastructures of peace” (ie. ministries
or departments of peace) to strengthen the culture of peace. As
recommended in the draft Resolution:
1) Urge the
Secretary-General to actively encourage all UN Member States to build
the culture of peace architecture nationally – and in collaboration
with the community of nations – by creating structures across national
governments to direct policies and programmes in peace-building, and
that these structures be in the form of Ministries or Departments of
Peace, to support fulfillment of the vision in the UN Declaration and
Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace (1999).
2)
Invite the Secretary-General to create a link within the UN
system to facilitate coordination with the national Ministries and
Departments of Peace, in collaborative efforts to promote the culture
of peace. Such link would evaluate how all adopted UN actions
contribute to the culture of peace by having “Culture of Peace Impact
Assessments.”
3) Request that the Secretary-General
refer to the UN Advisory Committee on Administration and Budgetary
Questions the idea of setting up a Voluntary Fund to allocate resources
for addressing these essential peace-building activities that protect
through prevention; to begin the “economic conversion” shift from
military to civilian production, so as to “beat our swords into
ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks.”
4)
Reaffirm the United Nations pledge, as representatives of the
governments of the world, to join “we the peoples” in building a
peaceful, in the spirit of the UN Charter; advancing the culture of
peace with each nation, each culture, each religion and each human
being.
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